第二十五章

27 August 2075

Shoichi crawled out of his pod and took the elevator to the fifth floor to have a wash before changing out of his biodegradable pyjamas, which he threw into the bin, and back into his clothes which had been cleaned by silver ionisation as he slept. Nevertheless, he still felt a little grubby and considered going to a convenience store to at least get some fresh underwear but that could wait as he was hungry. 

He was looking forward to breakfast not on account of the location, which he wondered if he would find as depressing as yesterday, but because the food he had eaten there was of surprisingly good quality and he hoped that breakfast would be the same. He had also developed something of a soft spot for Ubakai in the very short time he had known her and wondered if she would be there for the morning shift.

There was no need to check out of the accommodation as his smart stamp would simply revert access back to the hospital and Kimiko’s room only from ten o’clock, so he took the elevator back down to the first floor, walked out through the lobby doors and across the soulless concrete vista of the hospital grounds towards the cafeteria. On entering through the single sliding door, he was pleased to see that the place was livelier and with more customers that when he had last visited, so many so that only a couple of seats were available. As his breakfast had been pre-ordered, he was unsure how he should proceed as he would not have a ticket to exchange. However, a friendly face was beaming at him from the kitchen.

 ‘Good morning, Tanaka-san,’ Ubakai said. ‘Nice to see you again today. I trust that you slept well last night.’

Shoichi looked around for Ubakai’s boss as he was not immediately sure if he was being greeted according to a script in the training manual or simply as a genuine, friendly and polite gesture.

‘Don’t worry,’ Ubakai spoke, sensing Shoichi’s anxiety. ‘She doesn’t arrive until eleven o’clock.’

‘In which case, good morning Ubakai-san,’ Shochi said with warmth. ‘I’ve got a Japanese-style breakfast ordered. Did the request come through to the kitchen?’

‘Yes, it did,’ Ubakai said. ‘I’m just cooking some more salmon and then I’ll be right with you. Here’s some green tea for now to drink while you are waiting. Please take a seat.’

‘Thank you,’ Shoichi said, picking up the individually sized patterned ceramic teapot and handle-less cup, placing them on a tray.

He sat down at a table that seemed to be occupied by mainly medical staff. The atmosphere was markedly different than before and he felt that Ubakai had created a light and friendly feel to the place that no amount of training could teach. After a few minutes, Ubakai was standing beside him holding a tray of what looked, and smelt, like excellent food.

‘There you go,’ Ubakai said as she bent slightly and slid the tray across to him. ‘I hope that you enjoy it.’

‘I’m sure that I will,’ Shoichi said. ‘Thank you so much, it looks delicious.’

In front of him was some rice, miso soup, a grilled salmon fillet, an umeboshi pickled plum, some rectangular sheets of flavoured nori seaweed and a delicate looking daikon white radish salad that was topped with katsuobushi fish flakes.

‘Itadakimasu,’ Shoichi said as he broke apart the wooden disposable chopsticks, picked up the bowl of miso soup and took a long sip until he had a full mouthful. Taking his time over the delicate flavours, he ate dish after dish, finishing with the daikon salad.

As there were no more customers waiting to be served, Ubakai came over and sat opposite Shoichi at the last spare seat.

‘How was it?’ she asked, her modesty not allowing her to bring herself to meet his eyes.

Gochisōsama deshita ‘It was a feast, thank you,’ Shoichi said picking up his cup and having a final sip of green tea. ‘Would I be right in assuming that this menu was not strictly what Tasty Food says you should be cooking?’

‘Um, yes, you would be right to assume that,’ Ubakai said looking down towards the floor having made this confession. ‘It’s not totally different but I have taken the liberty of adding my own twists with flavour and the daikon salad was made from radishes that I grew myself.’

‘Well, I have to say that you are wasted here,’ Shoichi said continuing the conversation. ‘You should give some serious thought to setting up on your own. I’m sure that customers would come flooding in if this breakfast is any indication of your talents.’

‘Oh, I don’t know,’ Ubakai said. ‘This is just a hobby really but do you really think I could make it work?’

‘Absolutely,’ Shoichi said encouragingly. ‘I’ve eaten a lot of dishes in many restaurants in my life and that daikon salad was up there with the best of them. Don’t waste your life working for a catering chain when you have such talent. If you don’t want to go it alone straight away then get a job as a chef in a small independent establishment where you can learn about running a business. Places like this don’t want their employees to be creative but merely to follow procedure. I did enough of that during my working life and, believe me, it destroys your soul eventually.’

‘Thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words,’ Ubakai said, spotting some movement at the entrance to the cafeteria. ‘I really will give it some consideration. If you’ll excuse me now, I’ve got another customer to serve.’

‘You’re welcome,’ Shoichi said, adding before he stood up, ‘I really mean it. Don’t waste your life here. I’ll be keeping an eye out for reviews of Ubakai’s Café in the near future.’

Shoichi watched Ubakai walk off with a spring in her step and smiled to himself satisfied that he had hopefully given someone the confidence boost that they needed to spread their wings and fulfil their potential. He stood up, said gochisōsama deshita once more, loud enough so that Ubakai could hear and left the cafeteria by the same single sliding door through which he had entered.

When he arrived at Kimiko’s hospital room he was startled to see Aoyagi-sensei and two other doctors standing there, looking at the screen which, the day before, she had used to show Shoichi the electrical pulses detected in Kimiko’s hippocampus. At first, he felt panic rising in his chest but, on approaching the medical professionals, he saw that far from a concerned look on their faces, they were scrolling excitedly through the charts on the floating screen.

‘Good morning, Tanaka-san,’ Aoyagi-sensei said having finally noticed his presence, such was her concentration on the data. ‘I hope that you had a good stay at the hotel last night. Allow me to introduce my colleagues, Kato-sensei and Kasuya-sensei.’

‘Good morning, Aoyagi-sensei,’ Shoichi said and, to the two other doctors who bowed in greeting, ‘good to meet you both.’

‘I have some further news to share with you,’ Aoyagi-sensei said. ‘We have picked up stronger and more regular Nu-complexes in your wife’s scans as you can see here.’

As before, Aoyagi-sensei used hand gestures to manipulate the images on the screen and zoomed into the hour between eleven o’clock and midnight of the previous day.

‘We observed spikes in the activity of the hippocampus on six separate occasions during this one hour period. What’s even more encouraging is that the strength is increasing and at 11:52, three millivolts were recorded. This is significant as we are observing sustained improvement in the functioning of the brain and it looks like the healing is starting to take place in earnest. I don’t know what you have been talking about with your wife, but it seems to be working.’

Aoyagi-sensei turned towards her colleagues and said a few more words whilst sifting through the timeline of medical records before turning back to Shoichi. 

‘If you will excuse me, I must continue with my rounds, but please ask a member of staff to page me if you have any questions and I’ll find some time to come back to answer them.’

Once the doctors had left the room, Shoichi rushed over to Kimiko and sat down hastily next to her.

‘Did you hear that, Kimiko-chan?’ he said. ‘Aoyagi-sensei says that your brain is beginning to heal. That’s great news and I hope that you can hear me now so that you understand this and keep on fighting. Come back to me, Kimiko.’

Shoichi began to cry again but this time his tears were of hope and of joy.

***

Can’t wait to find out what happens next?

Washing Over Me is available as a download for Kindle or as a printed paperback, both from Amazon:

Kindle Version – Amazon UK
Paperback – Amazon UK
Kindle Version – Amazon US
Paperback – Amazon US

Or search for “Washing Over Me Benjamin Brook” from your country’s Amazon homepage.